Teaching English
I hearby officially dedicate the beginning portion of each entry of my blog to those who comment leave comments on my blog... the few, the pround... the Marines... (Luke makes a face as he realizes his quote doesn't quite fit) thank you one and all.
First of all to answer Alyse, the food is spicy. Is it as spicy as I thought? I don't know... I don't really know how spicy I thought it would be. Let me see... Unlike in America where only certain foods are spicy, here many things are spicy... almost to the point where I would like to say everything is spicy... except the rice... the rice isn't spicy, but the stuff you put on the rice is spicy. And almost all of the food is more spicy than food is in America. In America, people make spicy food at a medium level of spicyness so that just about everyone will be able to eat it. Here, most of the food is what at what Americans would call a high level of spicyness, and some of it is higher than that. I have found that I mostly enjoy the spicy food, but I eat less of it than people here do. For example, when I put a sauce on my rice, I have a larger amount of rice (to absorb the spicy food) with the sauce than do local people. The rice here is white... They prefer it that way, and what that means, is that they put the rice through a machine that polishes it so that it takes off the bran... the same thing we do to make white bread. and no, you never did tell me that Nathaniel has been where they filmed Mount Doom... that is awesome! Is that in New Zealand too? What was he doing there? And to answer about the rain, I will tell you about that a little later... I think tomorrow, when I have my journal
Second, Elise. I am so glad to hear to are reading my blog to your family! That is so much fun. (big smile) It makes me feel very special. So, "hello" to all the of the Glanzer family I hope you are having a wonderful summer. Oh, a bit of information that I thought everyone out there might like to know, I believe the time difference is exactly 12 hours. So right now, when I am writting this, it is 10:04 AM here, and 10:04 PM there... the only problem is I don't know exactly which way that goes... is it 10:04 PM yesterday (aka Sunday) where you are , or is it 10:04 PM today (aka monday)? Let me know if you figure it out.
Third, It is good to here from you Dr. Larson, I am having a very good time, and I am glad you and Dr. Baker are able to read about everything.
Now on to other things... I guess I should have brought my journal over to the office. I have quite a few things to write about, but I want to make sure I don't forget anything. Oh well, I might have to go back tomorrow and cover a few other things.
So far, I have spent the majority of my time here with Jay's family. It has been a time of just getting used to everything that is new... the culture, and the way things work around here. I have enjoyed getting to know my aunt and uncle and cousins better. They are such fun people. It is too bad that I won't be able to spend the whole summer with them, but one of the good things is that now that I know them better, it will be easier to write them emails and talk with them on messenger when I am home in America because I will know what to talk to them about.
Speaking of messenger. I do have yahoo messenger on this computer my name on it is "lopuke" (pronounced law pook to those who do not know horse latin) And I will try to sign on to the computer with it, so that if anyone happens to be online when I am , we can talk.
On Wed. I will be going with Jay, Milka, Sky, and Miku to Bangkok. Jay and Milka have some meetings, I believe, and we will be doing some tourism things too. I thinkwe will go to the beach. When they leave to go to Finland, I will drive on of their cars back (following on of the Lao workers who is driving the other car.) I will drive this manual transmition car back to Sawannakhet, and then on June 11th I will actully begin teaching English. So, from from the first of June to the tenth, I will probably not have access to internet, so do not expect me to do email or update this blog.
As for teaching, I will teach speaking skills from 10-12 and then from 2-3 I will teach writting. I will do this monday through friday from June 11th until July 8th or 13th. Jay has given me some ideas for how to do this, and so I am not too worried about it. (meaning I am a little nervous) It sounds like in the morning I do whatever I can do to get them to talk. There is a book that is about the kind of stuff these people work with here (agriculture and development) and I can go through that with them if I like, or I can get them to talk about themselves and their families, or I can find articles online. The idea is to get them to speak English... It doesn't really matter what they talk about as long as they are speaking. In the afternoon, I can get them to write about different things... short paragraphs... and then after they have written, We can make photocopies and go through fixing errors in word order and tense, etc. Again, I am to be creative, just getting them to write. I think I can do this. I have occasionally been known to be creative. maybe this won't be so difficult... Jay says it will be a lot of fun.
All of my students already know the basics of English, so I will be working with them to improve what they already have. I will teach five people from the project staff, and one person from the government agriculture office (or something like that) I will teach until July 8 or 13 (depending on how long they want to keep going with this) and then I will leave here on July 14. I will go across the river and jump on a bus going to banbgkok. I will sleep on the bus and arrive at the airport early on the morning of the 15th (5:00 AM I think) Then I will wait for Bethany Moos to show up, and our plane leaves for China at 10:30 AM. Then I will begin the second part of my summer. Which should be a piece of cake after this, becuase I won't have to make up lesson plans, they will give us one that we just have to follow.
Change of Subject-I have officially decided that it is very frustrating to try to build a web page on slow internet. The internet here is supposed to be fast, but there is something wrong with it or something. As a result it sometimes tries my patience. I am very used to the school's instant internet, and this is quite different (although Jay tells me that it used to be much worse.) So I have been trying to build a web page for pictures that I want to show all of you, but it is taking quite a lot of time... I hope to get it done soon.
-Luke
First of all to answer Alyse, the food is spicy. Is it as spicy as I thought? I don't know... I don't really know how spicy I thought it would be. Let me see... Unlike in America where only certain foods are spicy, here many things are spicy... almost to the point where I would like to say everything is spicy... except the rice... the rice isn't spicy, but the stuff you put on the rice is spicy. And almost all of the food is more spicy than food is in America. In America, people make spicy food at a medium level of spicyness so that just about everyone will be able to eat it. Here, most of the food is what at what Americans would call a high level of spicyness, and some of it is higher than that. I have found that I mostly enjoy the spicy food, but I eat less of it than people here do. For example, when I put a sauce on my rice, I have a larger amount of rice (to absorb the spicy food) with the sauce than do local people. The rice here is white... They prefer it that way, and what that means, is that they put the rice through a machine that polishes it so that it takes off the bran... the same thing we do to make white bread. and no, you never did tell me that Nathaniel has been where they filmed Mount Doom... that is awesome! Is that in New Zealand too? What was he doing there? And to answer about the rain, I will tell you about that a little later... I think tomorrow, when I have my journal
Second, Elise. I am so glad to hear to are reading my blog to your family! That is so much fun. (big smile) It makes me feel very special. So, "hello" to all the of the Glanzer family I hope you are having a wonderful summer. Oh, a bit of information that I thought everyone out there might like to know, I believe the time difference is exactly 12 hours. So right now, when I am writting this, it is 10:04 AM here, and 10:04 PM there... the only problem is I don't know exactly which way that goes... is it 10:04 PM yesterday (aka Sunday) where you are , or is it 10:04 PM today (aka monday)? Let me know if you figure it out.
Third, It is good to here from you Dr. Larson, I am having a very good time, and I am glad you and Dr. Baker are able to read about everything.
Now on to other things... I guess I should have brought my journal over to the office. I have quite a few things to write about, but I want to make sure I don't forget anything. Oh well, I might have to go back tomorrow and cover a few other things.
So far, I have spent the majority of my time here with Jay's family. It has been a time of just getting used to everything that is new... the culture, and the way things work around here. I have enjoyed getting to know my aunt and uncle and cousins better. They are such fun people. It is too bad that I won't be able to spend the whole summer with them, but one of the good things is that now that I know them better, it will be easier to write them emails and talk with them on messenger when I am home in America because I will know what to talk to them about.
Speaking of messenger. I do have yahoo messenger on this computer my name on it is "lopuke" (pronounced law pook to those who do not know horse latin) And I will try to sign on to the computer with it, so that if anyone happens to be online when I am , we can talk.
On Wed. I will be going with Jay, Milka, Sky, and Miku to Bangkok. Jay and Milka have some meetings, I believe, and we will be doing some tourism things too. I thinkwe will go to the beach. When they leave to go to Finland, I will drive on of their cars back (following on of the Lao workers who is driving the other car.) I will drive this manual transmition car back to Sawannakhet, and then on June 11th I will actully begin teaching English. So, from from the first of June to the tenth, I will probably not have access to internet, so do not expect me to do email or update this blog.
As for teaching, I will teach speaking skills from 10-12 and then from 2-3 I will teach writting. I will do this monday through friday from June 11th until July 8th or 13th. Jay has given me some ideas for how to do this, and so I am not too worried about it. (meaning I am a little nervous) It sounds like in the morning I do whatever I can do to get them to talk. There is a book that is about the kind of stuff these people work with here (agriculture and development) and I can go through that with them if I like, or I can get them to talk about themselves and their families, or I can find articles online. The idea is to get them to speak English... It doesn't really matter what they talk about as long as they are speaking. In the afternoon, I can get them to write about different things... short paragraphs... and then after they have written, We can make photocopies and go through fixing errors in word order and tense, etc. Again, I am to be creative, just getting them to write. I think I can do this. I have occasionally been known to be creative. maybe this won't be so difficult... Jay says it will be a lot of fun.
All of my students already know the basics of English, so I will be working with them to improve what they already have. I will teach five people from the project staff, and one person from the government agriculture office (or something like that) I will teach until July 8 or 13 (depending on how long they want to keep going with this) and then I will leave here on July 14. I will go across the river and jump on a bus going to banbgkok. I will sleep on the bus and arrive at the airport early on the morning of the 15th (5:00 AM I think) Then I will wait for Bethany Moos to show up, and our plane leaves for China at 10:30 AM. Then I will begin the second part of my summer. Which should be a piece of cake after this, becuase I won't have to make up lesson plans, they will give us one that we just have to follow.
Change of Subject-I have officially decided that it is very frustrating to try to build a web page on slow internet. The internet here is supposed to be fast, but there is something wrong with it or something. As a result it sometimes tries my patience. I am very used to the school's instant internet, and this is quite different (although Jay tells me that it used to be much worse.) So I have been trying to build a web page for pictures that I want to show all of you, but it is taking quite a lot of time... I hope to get it done soon.
-Luke
3 Comments:
The food sounds good, I reckon it is hotter than the curry Christy and I make. :D
Nathaniel was in New Zealand when he went there with his brother who competed in an Ironman triathalon. They spent a couple of weeks wandering around New Zealand. He has pictures that are pretty cool.
(Which by the way, Matt competed in one yesterday in Brasil and finished in 10:28:59--his personal best time. He was 85th out of 989 competitors who finished. A Triathalon is the Swim 2.4 miles, the biking part is 112 miles, and the run is 26.3 miles.)
By
Maggi, at 10:35 AM
hey luke
i am here in ellendale waiting to start practicing for drama teams. i just wanted to let you know that it is great getting to read your blog. Mom is going to print them and send them to me while i am at camp because i dont know when i get to be on the internet. I really miss you and i think of you alot. like right now =)
Mandi Hayen says "hi"
love dew!
By
Anonymous, at 12:35 PM
It is really grand how much you have been telling us about your experiences. It is grand reading them.
Did I (this is Christy, by the way, in case you didn't guess--my messenger name is annamandakelley) ever tell you that Finnish is related to Hungarian? They're both Finno-Ugric languages, and Finnish is considered one of the, if not the, hardest languages in the world to learn.
I enjoy tennis somewhat. Have a pretty good backhand, but I'm not really very good.
I hope you have a grand old time in Bangkok. I should love to go there. I don't envy you the heat, though, or the spicy food.
By
Anonymous, at 3:00 PM
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